Insights Into the Asse Mine on the topic of man and machine
- Technology and machines are necessary to recover the radioactive waste from the Asse mine
- In addition to machines, however, the human perspective must be taken into consideration, too
- The decommissioning of the Asse mine opens up potential for innovation and know-how for the handling of radioactive waste
Ever since, technical revolutions have strongly changed societies. We like to see only the positive side of this: The improvements, the perfection – as if machines were the better half of man. But the relationship of man and machine is ambivalent. Unquestioning faith in progress once led to radioactive waste being emplaced in the Asse mine. Risks were neglected. With regard to the task we are facing of recovering the waste from the Asse mine, great important is attached to technology and machines today. Among others, machines are needed to protect the staff from radiation.
Machines for the recovery of waste
For the current edition of Insights Into the Asse Mine, the journalist Dirk Gieselmann visited the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology in order to learn more about machines that are required for the recovery of the Asse waste. Not only does he narrate about machines and technical data but also about the persons developing them.
That, in addition to machines, also man must be taken into consideration at any time, is not only important to bear in mind the risks of technologies. Without the human perspective, one fails to discover that issues are associated with problems but also with potential.
"Not quite so sexy" - Solving problems
Solving problems such as the relics of nuclear industry requires know-how and expertise. However, this is mostly pushed to one side, says the sociologist Ulrich Dolata in an interview, since this was "not quite so sexy". "Research aims primarily at developing new things instead of knowledge and know-how of the dismantling of technology and the handling of the relics,"
says Dolata.
Regarding the decommissioning of the Asse mine, a point of concentration for know-how and technology can already be found today: The "heap of innovations" is illustrated by an info chart in this edition: It shows where and what for modern technology ensuring safety is used inside the Asse mine.
